Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 8:06pm, ends Saturday night at 9:05pm. Early Shabbat candle lighting is between 7:00pm-7:05pm. The weekly Torah portion is Beshalach.

Mincha in the CBD: We will experiment with resuming mincha (at 2.08pm) from Monday using the Minyan Now app. See separate e-mail to the mincha list for details.

Study: Wednesday shiur & lunch is on Wednesday at 1.15pm at Billing Bureau.

Kosher Food in the CBD: Nifla Kosher Catering (KA Hechsher)
Offers Corporate Catering, specialising in individual and board room  lunches. 10% Discount on your first website purchase. Enter promo code “FIRST TIME”. For further details visit www.nifla.com.au
IN A RUSH CAFE-616 St Kilda Road-(Ground Floor-Lowe Lippmann Building)

Thought of the Week with thanks to Isaac Balbin. My namesake was an Amshinover Chossid. Accordingly, many years ago, I bought a book devoted to Torah from Amshinov. There isn’t much. I used to read it with a cup of coffee on Shabbos morning. When the portion of Beshalach comes around, I always remember a thought I read therein, which I feel is profound.
We know that Manna from Heaven was provided as sustenance. Two portions were provided on Friday because we could not carry a Shabbos portion and from there we have the custom of using two Challos. What did Manna taste like? I was taught that it was miraculous. If one wanted it to taste like a steak, then it did. If one wanted it to taste like ice cream, then all one did was put that thought in their head, and the Manna would assume an ice cream taste. The first Amshinover Rebbe asked, “okay, but what did it taste like if someone didn’t think about the taste at all and just ate it benignly?” What happens when a person is caught up in the hurly burly of life, and forgets that this potentially miraculous food is able to afford a gastronomic delight, and instead merely consumes it unthinkingly and perhaps remotely. The Rebbe answered (it sounds much better in Yiddish): “If a Jew puts no thought into a Mitzvah, then that Mitzvah is effectively tasteless”.

That’s a challenge; to always have meaningful intent when performing God’s will. On the other hand, nobody has trouble appreciating or casting judgement on food they may be consuming. Let us be assuredly cognitive when performing His will. This is perhaps the reason why most Chassidim utter a “Hineni Muchan …” pre-amble, “I am hereby prepared …” before performing a Mitzvah that constitutes the Divine will.

As to any Bracha over Manna, Dayan Osher Zelig Weiss opines that this depends on whether the Manna actually changed into the food imagined by the eater or just tasted like it. There are other opinions.